Iran Rejects Cease-Fire Negotiations, Says Ready for U.S. Ground Invasion

Iran is prepared for a possible ground invasion by U.S. troops, the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday, as the war launched by the U.S. and Israel continues to escalate. Araghchi told NBC News that Iran is ready to counter American forces after U.S. President Donald Trump refused to rule out the possibility of boots on the ground earlier this week. “We are waiting for them,” Araghchi said. “Because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them.” The U.S. and Israel jointly attacked Iran over the weekend, reportedly killing more than 1,000 civilians in bombings that appear to have also hit several schools. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as well as dozens of Iranian officials were killed in the attacks. The military campaign, which is ongoing, prompted a wave of retaliatory strikes from Iran across the Middle East, reportedly hitting both U.S. military bases and civilian sites in Gulf states, killing dozens of people, including six U.S. service members. The Trump Administration has signaled that the military campaign is likely to be more expansive than initially laid out. Trump told the Daily Mail on Sunday that the campaign could last around four weeks, even as the war appears to be unpopular with most Americans and as foreign citizens stranded in the Middle East scramble to leave the region. And U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said during a Thursday briefing that “the amount of firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically.” Read More: The U.S. and Israeli War With Iran, Explained Araghchi also said that Iran has not asked for a cease-fire and is not interested in negotiating with the U.S., contradicting Trump’s claims that Iranian leaders “want to talk.” Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani earlier this week posted on X: “We will not negotiate with the United States.” “We didn’t ask for a cease-fire even last time,” Araghchi said, referring to the 12-day war between Israel and Iran last June that was ended by a Trump-announced cease-fire. “It was Israel who asked for a cease-fire. They asked for an unconditional cease-fire after 12 days that we resisted against their aggression.” Iran’s hardened position also reflects the fact that nuclear negotiations had in February been renewed—after previously being disrupted by last June’s conflict, which included the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities—and were ongoing prior to the U.S. and Israel’s attack. “The fact is that we don’t have any positive experience of negotiating with the United States. You know, especially with this administration. We negotiated twice last year and this year, and then in the middle of negotiations, they attacked us,” Araghchi said. “So we see no reason why we should engage once again with those who have, who are not honest in negotiation, and they don’t and do not enter into negotiation in good faith.”